Archive of Our Own ^beta

"Dad!!! We're home!!"
Naruto threw himself at Iruka nearly knocking him down.
"Are you alright?"
The boy had stopped listening, jumping towards the kitchen where Iruka had just been cooking Narutos favorite ramen.
"Hiiiii.."
Kakashi dragged a little smile playing around his masked face.
"Come in, I figured you were going to stay so I made enough."
Iruka sighed. It wasn't like him and kakashi didn't get along before the lanky man started teaching his kid but it nearly seemed like the jonin used every excuse to eat over and when it got to late for him to go home, which was most of the time, he just sleeped on a futon in the living room. It happened so frequently that the teacher had stopped to pack the makeshift bed away and it now the appartment would've felt empty without it.
"You're a charm ru-ru!"
Beaming he jumped after Naruto.
"Ru-ru?"
With another,louder sigh iruka picked up the other two's shoes and placed them orderly to the wall. Feeling like he was a single mom of two he hurried himself ro the kitchen to stopp his parasites from eating all the food before it waas even finished.
"Stopp it, both of you, go sit down!"
Iruka quietly thanked whatever higher power made his stricked voice work on Naruto.
"Need some help?"
"From you? You haven't cooked a single eadable thing in your llive."
Kakshi nodded.
"That wasn't a no?"
"You could get me dishes from over there."
Kakashi followed his order and brought three bowls.
"Since when do you want to help anyways?", Iruka asked suspiciously.
"I just appreciate your hospitality so much~"Kakashi winked at the other man. Erverybody knew that kakashi was a flirt and Iruka didn't want ro know who he'd all been to bed with. Matter of fact he'd toeverything not to know.
"Buying groceries from time to time would actually help alot more than standing around the kitchen, blocking my space. Here."
The teacher handed over a bowl before heading towards the already nagging Naruto.
"Awww, Iru-sensei needs a sugar daddy..."
Kakashi teased behind him. Luckily Naruto was completely occupied by his ramen so he didn't have to explain quesions about what a sugar daddy was.
"What kind of mission were you on today?"
Iruka asked nonchalantly.
"Nothing out of the ordinary. Are you concerned ~?"
"I'm always concerned about Naruto. Especially when he's with you. Besides, I actually just wanted to know if something happened that made you more annoying."
He did his best not to look up but he could sense Kakashi thinking about a good comback.
However, before the pro ninja could speak Naruto, slupring in his last noodle, interfeared loudly.
"The guy we fought today had a really sad backstory. It was really boring but 'twas something about never telling the one he loved how he felt or some'. Do we still have?" He pointed at the bowl and sprang up towards the kitchen as soon as his dad nodded.
"So a sad lovestory made you get more annoying or what?"
Iruka could barely contain a laughter. Kakashi just starred at him with his regular, bored looking face. At least to the untrained eye it was. To someone who had to deal with this man-child prety much everyday he looked hurt. Iruka's contained laughter stopped at an instant.
"Sorry" he muttered.
After a few minutes of akward silence the, still guilty feeling, teacher finally asked:
"You-you staying over?"
"Nah, even though I'm delighted you want me to stay I do have an appointment~"
The eyebrow wiggle at appointment made it abundantly clear what he was going to do tonight. He did have appointments from time to time and it really was non of Irukas business. Still, he left a window open if something went wrong, and kakashi needed some last minute resort.
"Is Guy back in town already?"
"Unfortunately not but I might have been chated up by a nice lady yesterday."
"Uh-hu, have fun then."
"Your not even going to ask me to stay with you?~"
"Why should I?"
Kakashi shrugged. No response. Again that hurt look.
"Huh? Kakashi-san's alredy gone?"
Naruto asked loudly when he got back.
"Just left, got something to do"
"Didn't even say goodbye. What a prick!"
Sulking Naruto stomped into his room from where Iruka, not even two seconds later, heard loud snors.
Smiling he covered the boy with a blanked and turned off the light.

------

It took forever to finish the papers of his students, some of which had decided to use an extra bad handwriting so he'd find less mistakes, and well past midnight, after a relaxing shower, he finally fell into his bed.
*Thonk*
Iruka jumped out of bed, knive in hand, as he heard the strange sound from the living room. Leaving the fenster open might not have been his brightest idea. Slowly he sneaked into the larger room ready to attack the cause of the noise any second. Fortunately, just before he managed to do harm, he realizes who it was, standing there in the dark.
"Kakashi-san?"
"Srry, I didn mean to wage you ub..."
The man slurred worse than yamato when he had one too many drinks.
"Sit down."
Iruka sighed massaging his forhead to prevent a psychosis.
The jonin followed his order, mostly because he could barely stand straight anyways.
"What the hell happened?"
"De lady-she was a thiev an she druggd me an toog ma walled."
"Your wallet?"
"Hm."
"That's all?"
"Hm."
"So you let yourself get drugged by a stranger who preceded to steal your wallet, and the first thing you do is dragged yourself here and climb through a window on the 3rd floor while you can barley stand straight?"
"Hm."
"And you want me to believe that."
"Hm."
"Hm. Hm what?"
Iruka could feel himself getting more and more angry but at the same time he was concerned. Of course he was. In some ways he considered kakashi a friend and for a friend one is concerned.
"Ruru-chan, has anyone eva dold you how beaudiful u loog wihd ur hair down?"
"Okay no, were not doing this now. Lay down we'll talk tomorrow."
The other man butchered a few more words before falling over and asleep.
Carefully, not to wake him up, iruka removed his jacket and shoes and headband but not letting himself touch the mask.
He did have a good Idea of what kakashis face looked without it because je swiftly pulled it down every bite he ate but out of respect he'd never intentionally tried to see under it. The man had his reasons and it was no one elses business.
After pulling a blanket ove him too and closing the window he finally made his way back to bed to at least get a few hours of sleep.
-+----------
"Huhhh! So Kakashi-san stayed over after all?!"
Naruto asked nodging his, still sleeping, mentor.
"Seems like it, crashed here in the middle of the night."
"What a prick!"
"Haha, you could say that..."
Then Naruto declared he was going to go blow some morning-steam of and find sasuke or sakura, preferably sasuke, to spar.
"Hey naruto! Do me a favor and bring these to school on your way, tell them I'm not well."
Iruka handed the boy the graded papers.
"But daad-"
"Please naruto, just do it."
"Fineeee, but I hope your not just staying home because of that moron!"
He pointed at the sleeping man.
"I ain't. Don't worry. Have fun!"
He smiled weakly as the bundle of energy dashed out the door with the papers nearly flying out of hand. His head was screaming from the little sleep.
"Hmmmm~"
"A dying man awakens, would you look at that."
"Aww~ iru even tucked me in. Nice to know that you care so much about me~"
Has anyone ever told you how beautiful you look with your hair down?
Iruka swallowed slowly. The last person who had said that. Mizuki. But no, this was different. Kakashi was drunk so it wasn't even sincere.
"How blank is your mind?"
"Oh~I remember everything~ How concerned you looked when I stumbled in here for example~"
"Well if you remember so much you might as well start telling the truth."
Kakashi just starred at him.
"You weren't drugged yesterday that's for sure. No jonin just gets drugged by some lowly burglar who is just after money. Plus you never even have you wallet on you!"
"You know me sooo well~"
Kakashi purred and Iruka could see his own temper snap.
"Kakashi Hatake, you stop talking in that stupid,flirty, purring voice at this instant and tell me what the hell is going on! Yesterday you go on a mission, come back suddenly wanting to help around here and then get drunk only to crawl back here!"
Kakashi looked at him, sighed.
"Why didn't you take of my mask?"
"You never take it of when you sleep over either, and how does this even matter right now?"
"You put my dagger under my pillow?"
"Yes, like you do it, I figured you would feel safer I guess. Now, start explaining, please."
The silver haired man gave a satisfied nod before he started talking.
"Naruto already said that the guy we fought yesterday told us a story about how he never confessed to his love before she died. It just, I don't know, changed something in me. Like I didn't want to just fuck the next best person who wants to anymore like I wanna-"
"find you someone?"
"Well yeah, you could say that. And then I remembered I had told this woman we'd meet tonight. She's lovely and very pretty sure but not like that. So, I called it off. It was stupid I know but I didn't know how to come back here without being weird because, you know, I never do so I acted like I was drunk."
"You prick!"
To say that Iruka was in disbelief was an understatement even though he new that this time Kakashi was actually telling the truth.
"You know I keep the window open?"
"I thought about coming back a few times after appointments..."
"And this time was different."
"I 'spose I just didn't want to be alone in my appartment."
He scratched his neck shrugging.
"Fucks sake. Then get dressed and go to the kids already. Your shinanigans have caused me enough headache for the next few years."
"So you don't want to see me again?"
The jonin asked jokingly even though Iruka thouht he had heard a bit of sincerity in it.
"No."
Completly sincere he looked at the surprised ninjas face before pressing narutos lunchbag, which he obviously had forgotten, in Kakashis hand and closing the door in his face.
It was true. He didn't want to stop seeing Kakashi. You don't want to stop seeing your friends. Even when they're annoying.
Friends.
Shit.
Iruka felt a panik attack araising within him. The last time he had felt like that for someone he-
Mizuki.
All the memories he had locked away wooshed back over him.
--------
"What's for dinner? I'M SOOOOOO hungry!!!!"
"Welcome home."
"Yeah, sorry I just forgot my lunch at home."
The teacher looked at Kakshi who just starred back blankly. Amused. Iruka thought to himself.
"Naruto, stop jumping around and sit down I'll bring you the food in a minute!"
As he was putting the dinner on the plates while Kakashi leaned on the counter Iruka couldn't shake the déjà vu from yesterday.
At least until Kakashi disapeared only to reapear closely behind him. The jonin reached around him, putting a large bag infront of the smaller man.
Iruka could feel his face light up just so lightly and immediately felt miserably. After- After him he had decided that love wasn't for him. Never had been never would be. He had made it his life mission to take care of Naruto and-
"Hey~"
He could feel kakashi's breath next to his ear snapping out of his thought spiral.
Concentrating on the bag he just hit the other man backhand on the chest and opened.
Vegetables of all sorts, expensive noodles and an even more expensive sake.
Kakashi crawled back close but kept a bit more distance this time.
"You mentioned groceries would help you?"
"And he sake?"
"Excuse for yesterday?"
Iruka nodded more to himself than to Kakashi and packed the stuff away.
------
After closing Narutos door Iruka looked back at Kakashi who'd picked up his book after sparing Naruto for about five minutes, until the boy just fell asleep on the floor of exhaustion from the day.
"You're good with him."
The reader looked up from his filthy book.
"Says the guy who adopted him."
It wasn't even teasing just a matter of fact statement.
"I'll shower first, when you're finished we can open the bottle you brought if you want to? I take it your staying over."
"Hm~ Our favorite teacher is drinking the night before work?"
"Tomorrow's no school and you know that."
Kakashi just grinned under his mask and turned back to the novel.
When the teacher came out of the bath a few minutes later he found that the jonin hadn't moved since he'd left him, still reading the book.
"You can go now, should be enough warm water left, I mean you always shower with barly any hot water so a little amount usually is enough anyways but if you happen to decide you wanna shower hot."
Kakashi stared at him, bored faced as always. Amused but also sad? Iruka thought but didn't say anything.
Without even thinking of stopping to stare Iruka up and down Kakashi stood up and moved towards him, or better said, towards the bathroom.
"Hot water pipe fixed?"
"Yeah, two days ago."
The jonin stopped before Iruka. Looked at his face intensely. Smiled. And then strolled into the bathroom.
Even though Iruka was usually quite good at understanding other people's feelings he was phenomenally bad at guessing what they were thinking. In Kakashis case the former already was hard enough so the second proved a to be a completely impossible task. Still, Iruka would've given nearly anything to know what was going on in the taller man's head right now, or at any time actually.
"I'm finished~"
Iruka had seen Kakashi in his loosely tied yukata often enough to know he looked really good. But usually he didn't also see his full face.
The teacher resisted the urge to stand up and brush the others dripping wet hair out of his face and just looked outside.
"Wanna sit on the balcony?"
"Sure~"
----------
The summer night air was quite warm.
"So, you already have someone in mind for your project: finding true love?"
Iruka asked after a while of comfortable silence.
"Hm. I think so-"
A tiny sting pierced Irukas heart but at the same time relieve washed over him. He couldn't quite explain his feelings.
"You ever thought 'bout sth like that?"
The questioned sighed.
"I've even tried. It didn't - I- You know-"
Kakashi looked compassionate. Without the mask be really appeared like an open book.
"Right, him, sorry..."
"Don't worry about it. After him-after Mizuki I decided that maybe love isn't really something made out for me. I need to watch over Naruto. It just gets in the way."
Again kakashi looked compassionate just that it mixed with some strange sadness in his eyes.
Another silence followed. Not uncomfortable though.
Iruka eyed the other man quietly. He really had beautiful features.
"Has anyone ever told you how beautiful you look without your mask?"
It was like Iruka heard someone else talk sith his voice.
Kakashi raised an eyebrow and smiled.
"Not anyone ever seen me without it."
"Not even Guy?"
"I don't just show my face to everyone, even if I really trust them. Plus, you don't need to see my face for sex~"
"Too many details."
Trust. Kakashi had just admitted to trust him quite alot. Maybe-
"If you trust me sooo much you'll surely tell me who this person you laid an eye on is? The long term one?"
"You're slyer than you look like~"
Iruka just threw him a challenging look.
"Alright, alright. Matter of fact, I've had my eye on someone for quite a while already. Something you would've known if you hadn't so rudely interrupted me when I was spilling my heart out."
"When did I do that?"
"Well, I was about to say that I wanted to confess after that fight but you took the liberty to change it to find someone."
Oh. That actually made the ordeal with the woman more understandable.
"They're really great to be honest and I'm pretty sure I don't deserve them plus they have stated themselves that they don't want a relationship even though I'm pretty sure they like me back, at least to some extent."
Another tiny sting. This time without the feeling of relief.
"Still, I don't want to force them into anything because their last partner was pretty horrible plus like I mentioned they're out of my league. They're great with kids, kind, compassionate, and so on." Kakashi moved his hand threw the air as if he was trying to get rid of a fly.
"But isn't it more fair to them and yourself to tell them the truth instead of just feeling sorry for yourself?"
Kakashi huffed a laugh and looked at him.
"Well, how'd you reacted when I just said, out of the blue, Dearest Iruka, from that day when we were teens and I saw you the first time with your hair down in the boys shower I had the biggest crush on you, so much so that I did, after years of pining after you, everything in my power to teach your kid so I could talk to you more often but that only ended up making me fall completely and hopelessly in love with you and when this other ninja talked about unconfessed love all I wanted to do was tell you how I feel but I couldn't bring myself to it cause I knew it would hurt you even though I know you like me too?"
Wait, What?!
Irukas mind was spinning uncontrollably fast. Why'd you put my dagger under my pillow? Of course. Loose friends don't know or care to know such things. Sure he found Kakashi attractive. Very attractive. But-
He looked at the lanky guy,who had retarded to just starring straight ahead. Kakashi he could trust.
Kakashi he could trust.
With that realization he threw himself onto the other guy, nearly knocking over the half empty bottle between them.
Kakashi seemed quite surprised when Iruka hugged him out of nowhere and placed a soft kiss on his thin lips.
The perplexion wore of quickly though as he didn't waste more than a few seconds to pull th smaller guy on top of him into a longer and more intense kiss.
"You sure?"
Kakashi pulled away a bit.
"I think so"